i keep a diary

December, 2017

The December Roundup

Here's a jumbo, double-sized December Roundup!

Friday, December 1st

maddy
Doesn't want to get out of bed in the morning. Lol
sleepy ˆ maddy
me
I understands.
glasses ˆ grumpy ˆ me
During the Crypto blow-up of 2017, I briefly spooled up a consulting service to help people learn about bitcoin and how to take custody of it via a cold storage device....
...and set up Crypto Advisory Services.
bitcoin ˆ work

Saturday, December 2nd

On Saturday, Craig invited me to perform a few of my original songs at a songwriting event put on by the Williamsburg School of Music.
songwriting
I sang two songs and it was my second time performing them in public.
songwriting
Taxi ride back into Manhattan and I...
jeet
...met up with Gurj back at my place for a Saturday night weirdo fitness hang. She tried out my weighted Indian Clubs that are good for your shoulders and upper back. And then we upped the weirdness a level and....
e9th apt ˆ green chair ˆ indian clubs ˆ living room ˆ jeet
jeet
...busted out the inversion table!
best ˆ e9th apt ˆ inversion table ˆ living room ˆ jeet
office
After Jeet left I played music until late.
garageband ˆ guitar ˆ office

Sunday, December 3rd

karen, matt, the ktb
On Sunday afternoon, a bunch of us went over to Matt's for a gang hang.
stuytown ˆ karen ˆ matt ˆ the ktb
karen, sarah, the ktb
Everyone brought along something snacky
stuytown ˆ karen ˆ sarah ˆ the ktb
meredith
I think this woman was from one of Matt's improv classes?
stuytown ˆ meredith
biggy, ellen, maddy, meredith
Small dog party!
biggy ˆ ellen ˆ maddy ˆ meredith
biggy, the ktb
Before we were passing around babies we were passing around our pups. <3
biggy ˆ the ktb
maddy
Maddy was in heaven...
maddy
ellen, maddy, meredith
...getting to rest her face on Meredith & Ellen AT THE SAME TIME.
asleep ˆ ellen ˆ maddy ˆ meredith
maddy
Awww, nose bridge!
asleep ˆ maddy
ellen, jeet, karen, matt
Excellent Sunday hang.
stuytown ˆ ellen ˆ jeet ˆ karen ˆ matt

Tuesday, December 5th

I went ahead and got a custom, BTC-related phone number for my new (very short-lived) crypto consulting service I was playing around with.
business card ˆ crypto ˆ flux capacity ˆ work
Bought a bunch of hardware wallets to help teach people how to take self-custody of their bitcoin.
crypto ˆ flux capacity

Tuesday, December 5th

lukas
On Tuesday afternoon, I went up to Leigh's and hung out with this little cutie.
lukas
Then went to a start-up advisory panel where I had been invited to speak as a guest.
flux capacity ˆ work
Rewarded myself with a late-night feast from Georgia's Eastside BBQ.
bbq
me
Why do I eat dinner at 2am every night?
me

Wednesday, December 6th

There is a lot of very deep programming involved in getting us to trade our scare time for green paper (that certain people can make more of very cheaply). I am very interested in using magic ritual to intentionally reprogram your subconcious beliefs...so I destroyed some fiat bank notes to remind myself that my labor is the scarce valuable assett....not the fiat bank notes that are used to measure and trade it.
magic ˆ money ˆ wtf

Wednesday, December 6th

On Wednesday afternoon, we had our year-end roadmap presentation....
board meeting ˆ flux capacity ˆ voray ˆ work
...to Voray's employees and investors.
flux capacity ˆ voray ˆ work
Cool to see the company grow!
board meeting ˆ flux capacity ˆ voray ˆ work
Afterwards, we headed to Gotham Archery....
...for our Voray holiday party!
flux capacity ˆ voray ˆ work
vin
Vin, "Hey, hey, take a picture of me." Me, "Why, what are you doing." Vin (whispers) "I'm Legolas." (I went ahead an linked that just in case there are any non-virgins who read this site and still want to be in on the joke).
archery ˆ best ˆ flux capacity ˆ voray ˆ work ˆ vin
I got a bullseye!
archery
After we were done with arrows, we moved on to a class to learn to throw knives!
knife
Pretty cool.
knife
david olk
The big bossman himself, on the throwing line!
david olk
Then lastly, it was time for the axes!
ax
me
Success!
ax ˆ thumbs up ˆ me
Afterwards, we all headed to a nearby restaurant....
flux capacity ˆ voray ˆ work
david olk
...and David gave us a year-end speech!
flux capacity ˆ voray ˆ work ˆ david olk
duncan
Here's to another good year!
flux capacity ˆ voray ˆ work ˆ duncan

Thursday, December 7th

On Thursday, I got a huge shipment of boxes!
box ˆ e9th apt ˆ kitchen
At the encouragement of his wife, my brother sold me his awesome computer he built to play Virtual Reality! Now that he has two kids he basically had zero time to play it
computer ˆ virtual reality
Getting everything set up!
computer ˆ virtual reality
Ta-da! Got the computer up and running...but still had to install the LIDAR motion tracking cubes on the wall.
computer ˆ e9th apt ˆ living room ˆ virtual reality

Friday, December 8th

maddy
So nice to have a silky morning cuddle buddy in the winter.
birthday ˆ maddy
me
Ok, I'll get of bed.
me
Took Maddy for a walk and one of the trees was still reluctantly holding onto its leaves.
grant, next lev kev
Grant and Kevin came over for a late night hang.
e9th apt ˆ living room ˆ grant ˆ next lev kev
next lev kev
Shitcoins were purchased.
phone ˆ next lev kev

Saturday, December 9th

On Saturday, I walked through snowy Brooklyn...
brooklyn ˆ snow ˆ walking
me
...to attend....
snow ˆ me
brother lawrence, jeet, karen, peter g, the ktb
Peter Gaston's birthday party (with lots of Peter masks! lol)
birthday ˆ mask ˆ brother lawrence ˆ jeet ˆ karen ˆ peter g ˆ the ktb
karen, meredith, michael, the ktb
Was nice to see everyone!
karen ˆ meredith ˆ michael ˆ the ktb
jeet, meredith
Gurj & Mer
jeet ˆ meredith
matt, the ktb
Kim & Matt
matt ˆ the ktb
peter g
Happy birthday, Peter!
birthday ˆ cake ˆ candles ˆ peter g
peter g
Hope all your wishes come true!
birthday ˆ cake ˆ candles ˆ peter g
karen, matt, michael
Happy birthday!
crowd ˆ karen ˆ matt ˆ michael

Sunday, December 10th

Sunday trash day.
game of thrones ˆ trash
Spent Sunday afternoon, turning my new virtual reality machine...
bitcoin ˆ computer ˆ node
...into a full bitcoin node!
bitcoin ˆ node

Monday, December 11th

maddy
Maddy does the cutest shit in the morning when she wakes up and wants me to pet her before we get up for our walk. lol
best ˆ cute ˆ maddy
On Monday I had to stop by both Slice and Voray. I love working with startups that are at different stages of growth and seeing how they change over time. On my way out of Slice, I took this photo of their impressive sales countdown board....
flux capacity ˆ mypizza ˆ slice ˆ work
...and then went over to Voray where Eric was proud to show off his baby-starter version!
flux capacity ˆ voray ˆ work

Wednesday, December 13th

On Wednesday, I went to the SiriusXM studios because I got booked as a guest on the Jim & Sam show...
bitcoin ˆ radio
me
...to talk about bitcoin! Thanks for having me on!
bitcoin ˆ radio ˆ sorta famous ˆ thumbs up ˆ me
grant
Met up with Grant afterwards to a celebratory meal and a radio show debriefing!
diner ˆ food ˆ point ˆ grant

Thursday, December 14th

Spend the morning listening to videos making the case for us probably not landing men on the moon five times between 1969 - 1972 (all during the Nixon administration). I started out with an open mind and the more I learned about the ten years leading up to these missions, the less-probable they seem to me. Very interesting to learn about!
moon ˆ wtf
Got another dusting of snow.
snow ˆ tompkins
me
Got all bundled up and trudged up to...
snow ˆ sunglasses ˆ tompkins ˆ me
...Voray to spend some time with the team.
skyline ˆ voray
maddy
Sometimes in the winter months, I like to dig out a box of old stuff.
couch ˆ foam roller ˆ living room ˆ mess ˆ maddy
maddy
Found this excellent bunch of mixtapes.
mixtape ˆ maddy
vin
4 of them made by Vin. 2 of them mine.
mixtape ˆ nostalgia ˆ vin
Didn't have anyway to listen to them so I bought this cassette to mp3 converter!
cassette
Love me a gadget / archival project.
cassette ˆ mixtape
I started with my friend Scott's high school band, Symaryan. The fact that this was recorded by 14 and 15 year olds in NJ in 1992 still blows my mind.
cassette
Popped the cassette in. Ripped the files into GarageBand....
cassette ˆ garageband ˆ mixtape
Then exported them as .m4a and uploaded them to sound cloud and here's the final product. Go on and give it a listen. Still slaps.

cassette
Next up, I digitized our college band's 3-song Wellspring EP I recorded with Josh & Jason in the Spring of 1998 during our senior year.
cassette ˆ wellspring
On Soundcloud for your late 90s listening enjoyment

cassette ˆ wellspring

Saturday, December 16th

jared, troy
On Saturday I opened up Spotify to listen to some music and was totally stoked to see...
spotify ˆ jared ˆ troy
jared, troy
...Jared & Troy's faces featured for their new band Black Caviar. Blowing up!
sorta famous ˆ spotify ˆ jared ˆ troy
fatty, grant
Later that evening, I headed out to Brooklyn to attend my favorite holiday party at Frank & Liz's...
karaoke ˆ xmas tree ˆ fatty ˆ grant
amanda, fatty, frank
A VERY PICARAZZI CHRISTMAS!
karaoke ˆ amanda ˆ fatty ˆ frank
frank, grant
Holiday party singalongs. <3
karaoke ˆ xmas ˆ frank ˆ grant
frank
Frank has the best band-leader expressions.
xmas ˆ frank
danny, frank, grant
After everyone is done singing Christmas tunes, it pretty much just turns into karaoke. You name a song you want to sing and Frank calls out the chord changes to the rest of the players. Incredible.
xmas ˆ danny ˆ frank ˆ grant
I left at 2:35 and they were still going!
window ˆ xmas

Sunday, December 17th

On Sunday I drove up to Westchester to...
skydiving
ellen
...meet up with Ellen and go INDOOR SKYDIVING!
skydiving ˆ ellen
ellen
This was so much fun and so much more difficult than I thought it would be. Definitely would like to do it again!
skydiving ˆ ellen
ellen
After working up an appetite, we headed over to the nearby Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Fried Macaroni & Cheese balls. Mmmm.
cheesecake factory ˆ food ˆ ellen

Monday, December 18th

grant, nanny pam
On Monday morning, Grant came over and we recorded a conversation with his Grandma (Nanny Pam) about Bitcoin!
bitcoin ˆ e9th apt ˆ grant ˆ nanny pam
grant, maddy
Haha. I love this picture of Grant & Maddy.
best ˆ e9th apt ˆ grant ˆ maddy
I don't remember whose cat this is! Maybe it was a cat that Meredith was cat-sitting for a while?
cat

Monday, December 18th

gary webb
I like seeing people using corporate media channels to spread information that traditional media has worked hard to keep off the radar. Years later, many people understand that our own government trafficked cocaine (and basically started the crack epidemic) in order to raise money to secretly overthrow foreign governments, but don't know that a journalist gave his life to make this information available. RIP Gary Webb
conspiracy ˆ meme ˆ gary webb

Wednesday, December 20th

grant
grant

Wednesday, December 20th

Thursday, December 21st

maddy
Happy 9th dog birthday to my favorite fuzz whistle! She is such a wonderful companion to me for so many years!
birthday ˆ maddy
maddy, me
Made this Baby Maddy vs. Birthday Maddy 9-year time-elapse for Instagram.
birthday ˆ nostalgia ˆ maddy ˆ me
Did you know that the Twin Towers were fireproofed exclusively with asbestos? Did you know that in May 2001 a judge denied insurance claims to cover the cost of removing the asbestos and safely disposing of...which meant the cost of removing asbestos vastly exceeded the value of the buildings?
9-11-2001 ˆ asbestos
Me trying to stay in that holiday spirit....
dad
...while spending the afternoon with my dad at his chemo appt.
chemo ˆ sick ˆ dad
grandma, mom
Later that night my mom and I went to visit grandma for dinner!
xmas ˆ grandma ˆ mom
I love that they had a sign up to play Left Right Center dice! Lol. The best gambling game there is. Pure chimp joy.
dice ˆ sign
Late night I went over to my favorite Florida strip mall bar: Harper's Pub!
bar ˆ harpers
steve b, tweeddale
Shuffleboard with Rob & Steve.
shuffleboard ˆ steve b ˆ tweeddale
steve b
We grew up playing this in our Pop Pop's basement and the smell of the sawdust always brings me back.
bar ˆ harpers ˆ shuffleboard ˆ steve b

Saturday, December 23rd

On Saturday, Steve and I headed to Jensen Beach.
beach ˆ ocean
steve b
Steve went surfing for a bit.
surf ˆ steve b
I love the cool vines and trees you have to walk through to get to the beach.
beach ˆ trees ˆ vine
me
Lots of driving in Florida.
driving ˆ me
brett, chris b, me, steve b
Came home and digitized a bunch of old photos at my parent's place.
family ˆ nostalgia ˆ xmas ˆ xmas tree ˆ brett ˆ chris b ˆ me ˆ steve b
chris b, me
Me and Chris. Probably Christmas 1986 or 87.
nostalgia ˆ chris b ˆ me
mom
My mom Christmas 1974(?)
nostalgia ˆ mom
connie battjer, hank battjer, me
Baby me with my dad's parents Hank & Connie. Guessing I'm like 2 here so probably 1978.
family ˆ nostalgia ˆ connie battjer ˆ hank battjer ˆ me
brett, chad, grandma, grandpa, lindsey, me
Me, Brett and my cousins Lindsey & Chad with my mom's parents Ann & Bill....guessing 1985?
nostalgia ˆ brett ˆ chad ˆ grandma ˆ grandpa ˆ lindsey ˆ me
brett, me
Brett and I checking out of
8 radcliff drive ˆ nostalgia ˆ robe ˆ stockings ˆ xmas ˆ brett ˆ me

Sunday, December 24th

mom
On Sunday afternoon...
bike ˆ mom
me, mom
...I went for a bike ride with my mom.
bike ˆ me ˆ mom
me
Then later that night I went to hang at Chris & Jen's. Love their dog Romeo.
dog ˆ romeo ˆ me
chris b, steve b
Hung with my cousins at their backyard bar.
bar ˆ chris b ˆ steve b

Monday, December 25th

me, mom
Christmas morning bike ride with my mom.
bike ˆ me ˆ mom
grandma, grandpa, mom
Then an afternoon visit with grandma.
grandma ˆ grandpa ˆ mom
grandma, me, mom
Family Christmas photos!
family ˆ santa ˆ xmas ˆ grandma ˆ me ˆ mom
dad
Later that afternoon, Dad donned his Santa cap to cover his newly bald head...
santa ˆ xmas ˆ dad
...we grabbed the spinach dip breadbowl...
bread
chris b, steve b, uncle bruce
...and we headed over to Chris & Jen's to celebrate.
chris b ˆ steve b ˆ uncle bruce
chris b, jennifer, laina, lila, lucy
Family pic of the other Battjers!
romeo ˆ xmas ˆ chris b ˆ jennifer ˆ laina ˆ lila ˆ lucy
chris b, joe
Cocktail hour.
xmas ˆ chris b ˆ joe
steve b, uncle bruce
Steve played some tunes.
guitar ˆ xmas ˆ steve b ˆ uncle bruce
Back at home I rolled a late night doober and went for a hot tub and a swim. Merry Christmas!
doober ˆ weed

Tuesday, December 26th

Made myself a lil brekkie......
bagel ˆ breakfast ˆ egg ˆ food ˆ toast
...and flew home in the afternoon.
flying ˆ wing
Read this on the plan ride home
book
me
Let my relatively new Nintendo Switch in the taxi by accident (wah!)...but otherwise it was nice to get home and do some foam rolling for my airplane back.
foam roller ˆ me
maddy
Maddy was excited to be back on her couch.
couch ˆ maddy
Got it on with my indian clubs....
indian clubs
...and played some late night guitar.
guitar

Wednesday, December 27th

maddy
Winter walk!
hydrant ˆ ice ˆ maddy

Thursday, December 28th

jane anne
On Thursday afternoon I went bowling with Jane.
bowling ˆ jane anne
jane anne
She was in a bowling league growing up and....
bowling ˆ get a load of this guy ˆ jane anne
...absolutely trounced me! Lol
bowling ˆ scoreboard

Friday, December 29th

matt, vin
On Friday I met up with Matt & Vin and we took an archery lesson.
archery ˆ matt ˆ vin
arm
Lord of the Rings Dinks.
archery ˆ arm
matt
Our instructor was 12 years old and she was a really good teacher!
archery ˆ matt
So fun!
archery ˆ target
Lololol. This shit was too real.
meme

Saturday, December 30th

akiko, maddy
On Saturday evening Akiko came over for a reiki session.
couch ˆ e9th apt ˆ living room ˆ akiko ˆ maddy

Sunday, December 31st

maddy, meredith
On Sunday night, I picked up Meredith...
new years eve ˆ maddy ˆ meredith
ellen, jared, jeet
...and we drove out to Gurj & Jared's lakehouse to bring in the New Year!
new years eve ˆ ellen ˆ jared ˆ jeet
Afternoon snack party!
ellen, meredith
We played a nerdy game I like called The Quiet Year...
new years eve ˆ quiet year ˆ ellen ˆ meredith
jared, jeet, meredith
Afterwards, we all teamed up to cook a potluck supper.
cooking ˆ new years eve ˆ jared ˆ jeet ˆ meredith
Let the feasting begin!
food ˆ new years eve
jared, jeet, me, meredith
Thanks for having us, Gurj & Jared! <3. Happy New Year and see you later, 2017!
hat ˆ new years eve ˆ jared ˆ jeet ˆ me ˆ meredith